'City' Came Into My Life One month ago my parents and I moved on the outskirts of Arkhangelsk. All my life before this life-changing event we lived in different villages of our region. So, I moved four times and changed two schools for last twenty years. For Russians it looks really strange, because in Russian mentality (especially in the north of European part) we have an idea that where you were born there you need for. Nevertheless this winter we bought a flat, where we renovate and change everything here, but everyone in our family likes to see these possibilities, which can give this new place for our living. We have really high ceiling (three meters) and big windows (about 1.8 m in high as well). I should say that it is really nice sound here, but now I have echoes when I talk by Skype. I can go to the center for 20-30 minutes and I do not need to think when will be my next bus. It’s really comfortable! Moreover, some weeks ago we got digital TV and high-speed Internet! I found three channels in English! There are BBC World News, CNN and France 24! I suppose that it is not all things which I discovered during my first month living here. Hopefully, I get something new in the close future!

About Russian Wedding Traditions Russia is a country where the traditions of our parents are very important to us. We believe in customs and superstition. The wedding day is one of many other holidays when we use almost all of those. Everyone knows the more traditions you use the happier you will be in a marriage. The wedding is a very important event in every life. People plan it for many times before it actually happens and discuss every slight thing with their parents and their close friends. They are nervous about it, but anyway it is a nice experience. As a rule, on the eve of the wedding day, fiancé and fiancée celebrate the stag night and the hen night. On the morning of the wedding day the fiancé go to the home where his fiancée lives and he must “buy her out”. The bridesmaids play hoaxes, ask difficult questions and say “We won’t give you the fiancée! Go away or buy her out!” The fiancé needs to answer on everything from those, give money and chocolates to bridesmaids. Sometimes they hide the fiancée’s shoes and demand that the fiancé buy them. Obviously, the fiancé get his fiancée, because he did a “buy out” with his witness. To have witnesses is another Russian tradition. After “buy out’s actions” the future newlyweds are going to in a local registry office. The fiancé has a witness man and the fiancée, a witness woman. As a rule they are their best friends. Nowadays there is an increasing tendency for people to get married in a church. I dare say, the further we get from the USSR period, the more traditions become from Russian Empire. By the way, when the husband and wife go out from a local registry office, people who were invited to this ceremony strew newlyweds with rice, chocolates and coins. They are symbols of well-being and prosperity. Then the newlyweds should go home under seven bridges and the husband has to carry his wife through one of those. As a rule in this time they have a photo shooting and after it they go to the main place where they celebrate it. What’s more, when they arrive there their parents meet them with a loaf and salt. For one thing in married life everyone wants to know who the host in a home is and the newlyweds bite it. Whoever takes the bigger bite is the host of the home. Another wedding programmer is doing by a toaster, which includes numerous speeches, a great deal of music and dancing and countless toasts, frequently to the accompaniment of the refrain “Bitter!”